​Our first ever stint as Virginia State Park Hosts at Pocahontas State Park has been everything we hoped for and more. It’s been so successful, we’ve signed up for another month this October and 2 months next year. We even have extended our stay into August to help with a youth program that extended for a couple of weeks. (More about that later.) But the great side benefit has been the time spent with the grandkids whom we’ve seen more of this summer than we had even hoped for .

Cathy bleaching the cabins before pressure-washing

Working It Out

We chose to volunteer at Pocahontas State Park because of its proximity to our grandkids, and its varied opportunities for outdoor activities. It’s also a beautiful spot to stay. In exchange for our volunteering, we were given a campsite for the month and some complementary passes to the park’s most popular attraction – the pool. This turned out to be a great attraction for the grandkids – even better than just spending time with grandma and grandpa.

Adam and Murphy are ready to work on the trail at Beaver Lake

​With July 1st falling on the Saturday of the holiday weekend, we worked with the volunteer coordinator to arrange for an early arrival so that we would be set up before the crowds arrived for the weekend. The position we volunteered for was “Park Host”, which we learned early on was different from the typical camp host at most parks we’ve visited. The park host doesn’t check or clean campsites, but instead provides additional resources for the maintenance staff, doing special projects that match the park’s needs with our skills. That position was just what we liked, similar to our Nomads projects. So, it didn’t take much time to get started. On Friday of the July 4th weekend, we were learning how to rent boats at the lake, and early Saturday found us picking up “micro” trash (i.e. cigarette butts, bottle caps, straw sleeves, etc.) in the picnic area before most of the crowds arrived. By early afternoon, Adam and the boys had arrived to camp for the night, so we put them to work on a hike around Beaver Lake, trimming overhanging limbs. We hadn’t even had our official projects assigned yet.​

Grandpa and Jayden trim trees

By Monday, we got our first official assignment – trim branches for the mowers in the campground and a gravel road used for the hay wagon rides. So on Tuesday,we loaded some tree saws, loppers, gloves, hard hats, and telescoping pruning saws into a “gator” (4-wheel drive vehicle with a bed that can be dumped) and headed out for our first stretch of road. Seeing as this was July 4th, and the park’s busiest day of the holiday week, we found ourselves immediately in the middle of an uproar, since the gators are used first thing in the morning to clean all the grills in the picnic area. Oops. We swapped out the gator for a dump truck that was manufactured just before we were married and were on our way. Two dump truck loads later, we were done for the morning. Pretty good start.

Dave pressure-washing one of the cabins

​Over the next few weeks, we whittled away at the limbs,balong the roads and within the campsites, realizing that we could work all month and barely make a dent. However, there were other projects on the horizon. The Park Manager asked if we wanted to take a break from tree trimming, we could pressure wash the 6 cabins and the camp store. No problem. We knew all about pressure washers from our time at Faith. We worked with the Park Office to block off the cabins so we could do it over 2 Sundays. Three one week and three the next. And Cathy would work with Jayden to do the camp store. How hard could it be?

Jayden shows off our hard work in front of the clean(er) Camp Store

​Well. . . Cathy found out the hard way. Collecting the materials to bleach the walls, the pressure washer which was stored at the pool, a hose that didn’t leak. It took quite a while just to get started. Then, the porch of the camp store had a large overhang that took more time to clean than the rest of the building. Having started before 8, we finally made it back to the RV at 2. The good news was that even though the temperatures soared over 90, since Cathy was soaked from head to toe, she was staying cool. Needless to say, doing 3 cabins on a single day proved equally challenging. We started at 10 as the cabins were vacated and returned the last of the equipment at 5. We were beat. We made sure we modified the schedule for the next set of cabins to break them up into 2 different days. Much more manageable.

Droz clearing limbs during Teen Week

​But when we learned there were 2 youth programs taking place during our stay, we made our interest in helping out known. The first was a Teen Volunteer Week during our 2nd week at the park. Our grandson, Droz, was one of the volunteers. And he and Jayden stayed with us for the week. We helped lead them in overlook clearing and in learning to build picnic tables (9 completed in one day). They built a new spur on a new trail and cleared overhanging branches to allow hay rides to take a new route. Each day had a fun activity, including canoeing, archery, geocaching and orienteering. Unfortunately, this was the hottest week of the year with temperatures soaring into the upper 90’s each day. But the kids accomplished a lot with a small group of 7.​

​The second program was the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC), which started the last week of July. This was a state-wide program, with Pocahontas being one participant. The 15 youth would work at the park for three weeks and receive a $500 stipend upon their successful completion. While they were doing some of the same kinds of tasks (corridor clearing, building picnic tables, etc.), they took on the building of a 70 ft brick-lined path and clearing 72 bags full of invasive stiltgrass and mint. It was a rewarding 3 weeks, but not without lots of challenges. We are still hoping our schedule will align to repeat next year. Although YCC extended into August for 2 weeks, we were able to work out an arrangement with the park to stay another couple of weeks to participate as volunteer leaders.

One of the YCC accomplishments - Newly-constructed gravel walkway

In general, the combination of the work and amazingly supportive park staff has made this a volunteer opportunity we want to repeat. However, we hope we will find it much cooler when we return in October.

Bonnie and Dad cook up a Dutch Oven breakfast

​Family Time

Each weekend of our stay at the park, we’ve been thrilled to have visits from one or both of our kids’ families. It’s been great. Despite the soaring temperatures, we’ve had campfires, cooked s’mores and dutch oven specialties, made pies and roasted marshmallows. There’ve been hikes, pool time, boat rides and mountain biking. We couldn’t have asked for more time together. We’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

New propane tank sensor

RV Stuff

“Do you think we should get the propane tank topped off? How long has it been? How full is it?”The RV has 2 30-lb propane tanks that fuel the stove, and when not plugged in, the refrigeration and hot water. It is the heat source in winter. But there is no effective way to tell how much has been used, which results in more worry about the state of the tanks than should be necessary. So, Dave finally decided to invest in a tank sensor system. A magnetic sensor placed on the bottom of the tank sends a Bluetooth signal to a smartphone app to tell how full the tanks are. Although we’re not using much propane right now, the sensor seems to be pretty accurate. But it still needs to be proven over time.

The park host position being new to Pocahontas, there was no official sign to indicate that to the fellow campers. So, we decided to correct that. And at the same time, we made a sign for ourselves. A trip to Michaels for some plaques and letters and a second stop at Home Depot for some surplus sample-size cans of stain. The end result looks pretty good, if we do say so ourselves.We’ve also had a “first” experience with something RV’ers call a “blue boy”. It’s a container that allows us to dump our holding tank at our site and transport it to the dump station. Since the park host spot is a regular campsite, there is no sewer connection, so we got in the habit of using the “blue boy” each week. With the use of the park’s gator, it was a pretty simple process, but not one that you ever look forward to doing.

Parting Shot

Cathy saw this cutie in the picnic area when she was picking up micro trash. No worries. He was long gone by the time the crowds arrived to celebrate the 4th.